


One Moment in Time

by celestialteapot



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Eurus is creepy, Gen, Mycroft Knows, Mycroft was distracted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 15:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9446912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialteapot/pseuds/celestialteapot
Summary: Mycroft was supposed to be watching them that day.





	

Shouts and loud splashing from the other side of the lake caught Mycroft’s attention. Looking over he could see boys from his school, older boys, roughhousing in the shallows. They'd stripped to their underwear, the water glistening on their young adolescent bodies. Mycroft felt a flutter in the pit of his stomach before an altogether more embarrassing physical reaction had him red faced and crouched over as he tried to think of anything else. After a few moments doing equations in his head, it was safe to stand. Still flushed he looked back towards where he'd last seen the others, alarmed to see that there was no sight of Victor or Eurus. 

Sherlock stood on the shoreline with his hands pressed firmly across his eyes and counting loudly. Mycroft suddenly felt sick. Rushing towards his brother he grabbed his arms pulling them away from his face.

“Sherlock, where's Victor?”

“Get off me!” Sherlock squirmed but Mycroft held tight.

“Sherlock!”

“Mycroft, you're hurting me!”

Beginning to panic, he let go. “Where's Eurus, Sherlock?” As he asked, Eurus came skipping out of the woods humming to herself. “Eurus, where's Victor?”

She smiled at him and began to sing a haunting rhyme which caused Mycroft’s blood to run cold.

Sherlock suddenly shivered and moved closer to his brother. “What did you do to Victor?”

She smiled again and started her song again. 

“Sherlock, run to the house. Get father. Now!” He didn't need telling twice. “Eurus, tell me where Victor is.”

“You should have been watching, Mycroft.”

“Eurus, this isn't a game.”

“I think I'll tell them why you weren't watching...that you were touching yourself. I saw you.”

Mycroft flushed. “I...I wasn't--. Eurus, you can't say things like that.”

“Why not?” She sounded so innocent he could almost believe that she didn't understand.

“Because you could get someone into a lot of trouble and if you don't tell me where Victor is--”

“But I did tell you, you just weren't listening.”

“Mycroft, what's going on?” Mycroft looked up to see his father and almost sighed with relief. 

“Victor is missing and Eurus knows where he is.”

“Of course he's missing!” He stared in disbelief at Siger. “Sherlock explained, they're playing hide and seek! Really Mycroft, there was no need to frighten your brother like that.”

“Father, it's not a game. Eurus has--”

“Enough, Mycroft. Go back to the house and see if your mother needs help in the kitchen. Honestly, you do worry me sometimes.” 

He wanted to scream or cry, to make his father listen but instead, he swallowed hard and started the short walk back to the house. Eurus’s song followed him up to the house where he threw up on the doorstep. Mummy took one look at him and sent him up to bed believing he had had too much sun, but by evening Victor was still missing and he wasn't the only one worried.

\---

Sherlock had finally stopped screaming having fallen into an exhausted sleep. The police had been and were planning to come back in the morning with dogs but Mycroft knew they wouldn't find Victor. They'd questioned him and he'd been forced to admit he had been distracted and lied that he had no idea what Eurus’s strange song meant. 

His parents disappointed expressions had said it all, he was an idiot boy for letting himself be distracted when he had been entrusted with a great responsibility and an even greater idiot for not being able to solve the rhyme.

Listening carefully in the darkness, Mycroft knew the coast was clear. Father had driven to London to collect Uncle Rudy and mummy had gone to bed with a sleeping pill hours ago. Sliding carefully off his bed, he pulled his jumper on over his pajamas and carefully opened his bedroom door. He listened again but the old house was silent, making his way down the stairs careful to avoid the creaky third step he pulled on his Wellington boots and took down the large torch they kept for when the power frequently went out.

Wrenching open the door, he headed out into the darkness with Eurus’s song echoing in his head. Eventually, he came to an old well, long forgotten on the grounds. He approached it cautiously, nausea rising in his stomach. 

“Victor?” He whispered. There was no answer. Shining the torch towards the well he could see the wooden cover was rotten and pulled away. He didn't want to look but he had to, had to know. Taking a deep breath he took the final few steps and shined the powerful beam down into the inky darkness. There was a smell of stale water, of brick and sediment...and something else. Mycroft forced himself to look.

Victor was there, in the water his neck twisted at an odd angle. One pale lifeless eye reflected back in the torch light and gagging, Mycroft fell to his knees, bent over as he wretched into the grass. Panting, he wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve and stared back at the well. He knew he could never tell anyone.

He walked back to the house, cold and shivering in the cool night air. So lost in his own thoughts he almost didn’t notice that Siger’s car was back. Rushing towards the house he flung open the door to see father and Uncle Rudy deep in conversation. They looked up at the sudden interruption as Mycroft flung himself at his uncle, sobbing hard into the rough wool of his jacket. He felt the large flipper like hand on his back and for the first time in his life felt safe.


End file.
